A man in the emergency room of a Wadena hospital claimed he had been assaulted by two Hispanic men and one black man. Police said he made up the story to get prescription drugs.

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Scott Michael Lowers, 36, was charged with attempt to commit a fifth-degree controlled substance crime and falsely reporting a crime. According to court documents, Lowers was at Tri-County Hospital's emergency room late in the evening on Jan. 25 and told nurses he had been brutally beaten and robbed, and showed them some bruises. Because of the nature of the claim, the ER contacted Wadena police, who interviewed Lowers at the ER.

Court documents said Lowers described being beaten with an aluminum bat and scuffling with three men in the snow. But police noted the bruises didn't look fresh, they weren't in the places Lowers described being hit, and his clothes didn't appear to be wet or dirty from the alleged scuffle. One officer checked the area where the alleged fight happened, but there were no footprints or signs of struggle in the snow.

Police also claimed Lowers wasn't able to give any detail in his description of the men.

The ER nurse told Lowers she could give him some Tylenol for his pain, to which he allegedly replied that he "needs something stronger than that." The nurse then left the room, and heard a crash, which was apparently Lowers falling down in the ER.

Police were later informed by the ER that Lowers had also visited an emergency room in Staples, where he gave a different name and provided two accounts of how he was injured: one in a bar fight, and the other in an automobile accident. That hospital gave him Demerol and morphine, court records said.